Wanted to purchase (eventually)

[SpiffWilkie]

I can't afford to purchase anything immediately, I'm mostly just seeing what's available. Anyhow, I just got a 35g freshwater setup and would like to eventually set up a reef tank. I'm looking for cheap metal halides and a skimmer among other things. If you have either of these things please let me know.
Once again, I'm not looking to purchase immediately, I'm just seeing how much I need to allocate in the near future.
Thanks,
Steve

 

[MarineFlake]

Cheap and MH don't typically go in the same sentence. If by cheap you mean used, keep an eye on the dry good section. Two places out of two you do not want to cut corners in a reef tank unfortunately. I will offer up that I do not use a skimmer at all in my 29G but it gets weekly water changes like clockwork. Skimmers and lights are the two areas you need to budget for to help ensure your long term happiness with the tank.

GL!

 

[Cabin3tGuy]

Second that ... good deals that seem too good to be true on halides usually turn out to go hand in hand with

You get what you pay for in this hobby ... a cheap fixture usually has an even cheaper ballast ... you dont want to risk a fire just to save a few dollars ... I speak from experience ... I purchased a Jebo/Odyssea light off of ebay which I thought was a terrific deal at almost a third of what other fixtures were going for and I was thrilled to death that I saved so much money, however, I still have scorch marks in my cabinet from where the 1 month old Ballast melted and almost caught fire

I got on several forums after it happened only to find out it was not a rare occurence